What We’re Reading

In the wake of Gov. Hogan’s veto of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, we have seen a forceful and resounding response calling for an override of the veto from parents, students, community members, and elected leaders. Below are some of the pieces we have been reading over the last few weeks.

“We know that there are students across this State that are losing millions of hours of learning,” House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) said in a statement. “The result of this short-sighted action is Maryland will continue to graduate students that are not ready for the real world, Jones said of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future veto.”

“Lost in the last-minute legislative fights over the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the extensive and expensive education reform package, and the inevitable cries in the face of economic calamity that the state simply cannot afford it at this time, was the genesis of the plan: The notion that the Maryland school system was failing way too many kids.”

“Back in February, I traveled to Annapolis to join elected leaders from Montgomery and Frederick counties to advocate for Kirwan. We all viewed it as our single best chance to drastically improve educational outcomes for all children in Maryland.”

“These disparities have had devastating implications for Maryland’s black and brown communities in particular. Currently, 72% of white students enroll in college one year after graduation, compared to just 52% of their black counterparts. Additionally, just 16% of black students met or exceeded expectations in Algebra 1, compared to 56% of white students. These are just a few indicators of the growing opportunity gap between different groups of children.”

“These critiques are imperative, not only for diversifying the workforce, but for building an educator workforce more representative of its population and more capable of serving an increasingly diverse population of students.”

“Maryland’s economic fate will not be steadied nor improved by scrapping the education Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, overdue funding for Maryland’s four public Historically Black Colleges and Universities and public safety legislation rooted in prevention.”

“Whether by design or mistake, in vetoing the Blueprint, Governor Hogan has also deprived Marylanders of critical school construction dollars provided by the Built to Learn Act — a bipartisan bill, overwhelmingly supported by the state legislature. Baltimore County alone was set to receive nearly half a billion dollars in desperately needed support to address our rapidly aging and insufficient school buildings.”